As the German Foreign Minister explained last week, the German government wants to achieve a "new formulation" [1] of the EU's East policy. This must happen during the German EU presidency, in the coming spring, because Germany has a "dynamic economic area" sitting right at its doorsteps. "We only need to look 80 kilometers from here to the east! The trucks are lined up at the Polish border every day. They all are carrying products from Germany, products that were produced, transformed and packed here," is Steinmeier's justification for his European neighborhood objectives. Also mentioned is Germany's import of Eastern European labor. According to Steinmeier everyone "knows", "if you want to paper an apartment, have a wall shifted (...) in Berlin, the most advantageous is to have it done by East European labor."[2]
Visions
The popular formulations are translated into target projections for German East Policy by the planning staff of the Foreign Ministry, which have been in circulation already for a few days.[3] The focus of German interests is to have Russian energy resources reserved, on a long-term basis, for the German economy and to make possible more significant takeovers by German enterprises, in the Russian natural gas and oil sector. This is a "key element" of the "strategic partnership" sought with Moscow, explains the paper from the foreign ministry. The Germano-Russian merger must be made "irreversible" and lead to a "greater Europe" - with obvious resemblance to Germano-Slavic visions of dominion.
Decline
Berlin is conceding to the louder growing invitations from Moscow to forge an Euro-Asian alliance. "Objectively seen," is alluringly heard in the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, "Russia and Germany supplement one another, so that a conceivably close cooperation in foreign political and economic policy would be the best choice."[4] To demonstrate the dimensions of this alliance, Moscow points to its geopolitical ties to Northeast Asia - they reach all the way to Vladivostok and border on China, Korea and (indirectly) on India. A "geopolitical triangle" [5] is in the making in the Asian region of Russia, that is shifting the emphasis of world processes, announces the Institute for Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The hegemony of the west, an alliance between American and European elites ("Euro-Atlanticism"), is on the decline.
National and Socialist
Exponents of one Russian parliamentary foreign policy group, that is growing in influence, set their hopes on Berlin and the transformation of German economic interests into a common geopolitical policy. According to this scheme, Russia would have the role of mediator, that must function as a bridge between the Atlantic to the west and the Pacific in the east. With the creation of a "uniform strategic realm, connecting Europe and Asia,"[6] Russia "needs alliances": Germany (plus France) on the Atlantic side, China at the Pacific (and India). The probate economic model for this "realm" is "capitalism with a national soul and a socialist face" - the "Euro-Asian" geo-politicians are explicitly making reference to Nazi ideological concepts and their protagonists: "models and authorities" [7] are the German "realm" - or "race" theoreticians, such as Karl Haushofer [8] and Carl Schmitt [9]. According to undisclaimed press reports [10] the Eurasian Party enjoys "generous financial and organizational support from Putin's presidential office."
Armament Business
Despite Russian geopolitical foreign policy objectives, the German economic policy makers repeatedly emphasize that, because of its best business prospects, Moscow is seen in Berlin as an unrivaled partner. In an interview with the "Nesawissimaja Gaseta" [11] Dr. Klaus Mangold, chairman of the "Ostausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft" (East Committee of the German Economy), pointed to "important joint ventures in the aluminum, steel, as well as the aeronautic and space industries. An outstanding example of this cooperation is between EADS and the Russian aeronautic and space industry." Here Mangold points to a disturbing aspect of the Germano-Russian special relations: the joint armament business.
Approval
On the occasion of the ILA aviation exhibition in May 2006 in Berlin, the state controlled Russian arms producers, "Rosoboronexport" and "Roskosmos," the "Russian Federal Space Agency", signed extensive cooperation contracts. Also among the successful exhibitors were the Russian fighter aircraft producers "Suchoi" and "Irkut". Through the national concentration of the Russian arms industry, the West European weapons producer, EADS, will very soon have "a worthy and equal Russian partner" [12], is how the Muscovite press agency, RIA Novosti praises the politico-military approximation of the former system adversaries. Their cooperation has already led to optimization of military interventions in third states. For the troops and weapons transports to Afghanistan or the Congo, the German military (Bundeswehr) uses the Antonov 100-24 wide-body transport (base location: Leipzig) paying several hundred million Euros to the Russian-Ukrainian "Volga-Dnepr-Group".[13] The business deal has "the approval from the highest levels in the Kremlin", is recorded in the minutes, that are at the disposal of german-foreign-policy.com.
Time-Tested concept
Also departments of the German Defense Ministry (BMVg) welcome the Germano-Russian brotherhood in arms and can point to positions advanced in the foreign policy. They publish in the "Eurasisches Magazin", among others, to promote "opportunities for cooperation of Eurasian states" [14] - "with the objective of moderating the dominant position of the USA in international policy." Among the authors and associates is Professor Dr. Wolf Oschlies, earlier on the staff of the "German Institute for International and Security Affairs" (SWP) in Berlin, a research establishment financed by the Office of the German Chancellery. But while the Eurasians are idealizing the power-political alliance game between Berlin and Moscow and want to believe in an "Euro--Asian ethic" [15], German foreign policy relies on its traditional methods - the carrot and stick. As is expressed in the foreign ministry paper, the "agreement" with Moscow is to promote "the transformation of Russia (...)" [16] - along the lines of the German concept. To contribute to the "democratic development of the post Soviet realm," Berlin will use a "modern interpretation" of a "time-tested concept." It came in handy with the slow disintegration of the former Soviet bloc and is literally used by the foreign ministry authors to describe the current Moscow policy: "transformation through rapprochement."
Tactical changes
In openly referring to ambiguous tactics for doing business with Moscow, the foreign ministry and the German industry are attempting to obtain the maximum margin of maneuver possible: in the west out of fear of a Germano-Russian alliance, in the east through reference to subversive capabilities. The uncertainty about the real motives of the German neighbor, allows Berlin to make rapid tactical switches and a random see-saw policy - at times with an Euro-Atlantic, at others with an Euro-Asian tint.
Please read also Raum, Volk, Imperium.
